Then Face to Face

Track thirteen is the song about the day we finally see Him - then face to face. It takes its whole spine from 1 Corinthians 13: now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. It is slow and wide and full of light, and it carries an image I have long worked with - the glass.

The verses are all now. Right now we see Him through a glass, and the glass is dim and old. We know in part, we see in part. But the song notices something about that glass that matters. The glass runs two directions, for it blocks us being seen. It is not only that we cannot fully see Him - we cannot be fully seen, and so we have hidden in our Sunday best, behind the frosted screen. That two-way glass is the thing a curated man knows from the inside.

And the chorus is the then - the day the glass is gone. No more darkly, no more in part, and nothing left to hide. Here is the turn that makes that day glory instead of terror. Being fully known is only frightening if you are not covered. For the ones the Lamb has covered, there is nothing left to dread. When the glass falls, the covered soul is finally, safely, completely seen. And the song makes it corporate - not one man unveiled, but the whole field, every face unveiled, standing before the throne. We will see Him as He is, and be fully, finally known. And finally, finally free.